Gastroesophageal reflux disease (hereafter referred to as “GERD”) is a generic term of diseases with various digestive symptoms such as pyrosis, acid regurgitation, obstructed admiration, aphagia, pectoralgia, permeating feeling and the like sensibility caused by reflux in the esophagus and stagnation of gastric contents, duodenal juice, bile, pancreatic juice and the like. The term covers both of reflux esophagitis in which erosion and ulcers are endoscopically observed, and esophageal regurgitation-type non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD) in which no abnormality is endoscopically observed.
Examples of causes of GERD include intraesophageal reflux of gastric contents due to lowered contractibility of the lower esophageal sphincter, reduced resistance of esophageal mucosa to acid and/or pepsin, reduction of esophageal clearance after reflux, prolongation of gastric evacuation, esophageal hiatus hernia and the like.
For treatment of GERD, administrations of acid secretion depressors such as a histamine H2 receptor antagonists and proton pump inhibitors, and/or administrations of agents for improvement of enterokinetic functions such as cisapride which improve lowered contractibility of the lower esophageal sphincter and prolongation of gastric evacuation have been mainly applied.
However, a sole administration of a single histamine H2 receptor antagonist or agent for improvement of enterokinetic functions sometimes fails to achieve satisfactory therapeutic effect. In addition, although the proton pump inhibitors can achieve high efficacy, their prolonged administrations have not been approved from a viewpoint of safety, which may arise a problem of recurrence. For these reasons, development of a medicament has been desired which can be administered for a prolonged period of time, and has a high effectiveness and reduced side effect.
An object of the present invention is to provide a medicament having high efficacy for preventive and/or therapeutic treatment of a gastroesophageal reflux disease and reduced side effect.